A Blog by a Black Iconoclast on Atheism, Politics, Black Issues, and Society

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Root Of All Evil?

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

1 Timothy 6:10 KJV

Just something in my face for fifty-three years that I just happened to notice: If money is “the root of all evil” as the Bible says – why does the dollar bill have “In God We Trust” printed on it? What does that mean in that context? I mean – if I were a Christian, I would naturally be attracted to any useful printed material that had the word “God” on it. Why? Because “God Is Love” right? And love is something that most people want to trust in. Right? But here we have God’s book telling us not to love the very thing that is reminding "we the people" what we should trust in - that is - in God.

Confusing.

It is even more confusing when you have Christians of all denominational stripes doing these three things:

1. When church/state separationists file lawsuits demanding the removal of “In God We Trust” from our currency – the main entities to file counter-suits demanding to keep this phrase printed on “the root of all evil” are churches, Christian individuals and Christian organizations. It would seem to me that since money-love IS "the root of all evil" - Christians especially would want to remove this phrase from the currency.

2. Church leaders speaking in conviction of the evil nature of money, but not hesitating to pass around containers to collect it, after they finish their lofty sermons about the dangers of “the love of money.” Some church leaders have TV programs – and even whole networks, whose main purpose (it seems) is to collect money. A substantial amount of time on these networks and programs are devoted to appeals for millions of dollars in donations. Billions in some cases.

3. Televangelists telling people to "send-in" a certain amount of money (to them) as a "covenant to the Lord" in order to demonstrate the sincerity of a person's devotion for the purpose of having a specific prayer answered, or for a "miracle" to occur. They also refer to this get-over as "sowing seeds." I heard one guy say that "God told me to tell you about the miracle of the thousand dollar seed!!!" After the money is sent - "Expect a miracle... EXPECT IT!!!"

WOW...

Clergymen - why would you want to collect a large amount of anything that may induce some (or possibly yourself) to “err from the faith” or cause some individuals to “pierce themselves through with many sorrows?”

OK, help me out here – are there any poor televangelists? No? What about poor but well-known gospel artists? Not poor. What about mega-church pastors? Ain’t short on bread either. What about “Reverend Joe” at the little storefront on the corner? Nice suits – beautiful car. What about poor parishioners? Oh now! Plenty of those! Especially the ones that pray for money. Well, maybe somebody is lying about this “root of all evil.” The ATM's in some of the larger churches and payroll deduction programs for tithes (no shit) also make me believe somebody is lying about the love. Or maybe everybody is lying.

If Christians really believe that money-love is “the root of all evil” stuff, I think they should do three things:

1. Stop playing the lottery – there is the possibility of winning. “And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24 KJV). Christians – do you really want to fuck with your chances of getting into “the kingdom of God” by messing around with the lottery?

2. Stop going to “the boat” (in Illinois we have floating casinos). 95% of the people going to “the boat” are people coming directly from church (on Sunday!!!). Do these people ever consider they are potentially putting themselves into the same kind of spiritual jeopardy as playing the lottery? Why would any “saved and sanctified” person want all of that “evil” in their bank account anyway? Either you believe that "needle" shit, or you don't.

(Some Christians will try to divert your understanding from THE OBVIOUS by saying: "Ahh... He mean the LOVE of money." I have NEVER seen a Christian show anything less than LOVE for their money - and yours too. Seriously - it is TRUE that professional Christians are rather good at theft, embezzlement, mail fraud, ponzi-schemes, writing bad checks, baiting and switching, and working various confidence schemes. Hell - just plain old "preaching" itself is a confidence game. Looks like "love" to me. Don't allow yourself to be bullshitted with their god-talk nonsense - PLEASE.)

3. Stop tithing – since money has such an evil inducing potential – the last place Christians should want to give it to is a church. Smart Christians that understand this principle don't tithe. Without tithes and other cash offerings - Christians would greatly reduce the number of good clergymen turning themselves over to the devil. You wouldn't want to be at fault for bringing that - would you? We all know what happens when clergymen get their hands on too much money (Rev's homosexual affairs come into the light, Rev's drug problems become widely known, Rev's wife beatings are revealed, and - the good Reverend's child molestation accusations start becoming a nuisance - you know). If you keep your wallets closed folks - the love of God would then prevail over the love of money. Christian parishioners would then have less need to pray (then gamble) for money to pay for stuff – you know - like rent, because they would be giving less of this "evil" away to clergymen - and consequently would then be able to give more to capitalists.

This is a good thing - you need to pay your bills anyway.

And lastly, parishioners – think about this - should the operating costs for your pastor’s Bentley really be an essential part of your "spiritual" budget?